I'm so sorry this took so long guys, life kinda got in the way a bit. I've barely been on the internet at all for the past couple of weeks. I got swamped with a lot of psychology and art work (but on the plus side, said work is starting to pay off) and I've got exams and coursework coming up soon. I've got two important exams in January and I think I have a whole art coursework project thing that has to be submitted in January. So unfortunately updates are probably going to slow down. I wish I could help that, but college is too important, sorry about that.

But anyway, onto the chapter! While this wasn't intended to link up with the first chapter (Introduction) they actually work together quite well, so you may want to reread the first chapter before this one, but you don't have to to make this chapter make sense.

SUMMARY: Toshiro absolutely hated Rangiku's parties. They were loud, messy and had a tendency to involve a lot of drunk shinigami. Rangiku is determined to show him that her parties aren't all that bad.

Chapter 12: Intoxicate

Tōshirō rubbed his temples as he felt a headache coming on. Rangiku had taken the liberty of hosting a party. In his office. Again. Tōshirō sighed. Parties were loud and always a pain to clear up, not to mention it interfered with his work. It had only started half an hour ago and he was already sick of it. Half of the people invited hadn't even shown up yet. He wondered how many people were actually going to come. The amount of 'guests' always seemed ridiculously high. At the moment the majority of the attendees were members of his squad, but he knew that officers from most of the squads would show up soon enough. Especially ranked officers he noticed. Rangiku had a knack for convincing others to come along. Tōshirō shook his head lightly. He wouldn't be surprised if tomorrow was a tough day for every squad, if the amount of alcohol that had already been consumed was anything to go on.

Soon enough his office started to well and truly fill up with people, from all squads. Did Rangiku even know half of these people? Tōshirō doubted it.
"Captain! Try and enjoy yourself!"
"Are you kidding?"
"Oh c'mon just try. Here."

Tōshirō glared at the drink she was trying to shove at him. "Matsumoto, I'm not drinking alcohol."
"Huh? Why not? It's not like you're a kid any more."
"Maybe not, but someone is gonna have to work tomorrow."
Rangiku nodded. "Fine, drink this instead."
Tōshirō raised an eyebrow.
"It's non-alcoholic."
Tōshirō rolled his eyes before taking it, knowing it was only way to stop her bothering him.

Hisagi made his way over to Rangiku when Tōshirō walked away. "Hey Rangiku, did you really get non-alcoholic drinks?"
Rangiku giggled. "Nope! But he needs to learn how to relax!"
Hisagi nodded slowly. "Thought as much. Buying non-alcoholic drinks didn't sound like you."

An hour had passed and Tōshirō had gotten through 4 bottles. He had started to suspect that the drink Rangiku had given him was alcoholic. The fact that it was alcoholic didn't worry him too much though. The fact that it didn't worry him that the drink was alcoholic did worry him though. He had to work tomorrow. Someone had to clean this stuff up tomorrow morning. But he didn't he care. He couldn't be that drunk could he? He didn't really feel it, but he hadn't exactly built up much of a tolerance to alcohol, so logically he had to be drunk. Didn't he? Tōshirō groaned in frustration, not being able to keep up with his own thoughts.

Deciding that it would be best to just try and keep his mind of his thoughts, Tōshirō figured that he would start clearing up a bit, there were glasses and cups everywhere, that were bound to get broken soon if they were left. Tōshirō stood up and walked over to the 'designated recycling area' as Rangiku had put it and placed his glass in one of the containers. Well he couldn't fault her for trying to be environmentally conscious, even if it didn't really matter in Soul Society. It was actually kinda sweet that she saw that recycling is a big deal in the human world and decided to try and get the same thing going around here.

"Wow I didn't think you would be drinking."
Tōshirō turned around to look at the young woman behind him. "I didn't really get a choice."
Karin smiled sympathetically. "Rangiku?"
"Of course."
Karin grinned. "Still, maybe it's not a bad thing. You always seem so stressed. It's good to let yourself relax occasionally."
"Well yes, but I don't need alcohol to do that."
"Good! Being dependant on alcohol to have a good time would kinda suck."
Tōshirō nodded.

The two stayed silent for a moment, a little awkwardly, before Karin spoke again. "So, how many have you had?"
"A few, why?"
Karin shrugged. "You want another one?"
Tōshirō looked over to Karin. He had came to the conclusion that he probably shouldn't drink any more about ten minutes ago, but he found it stupidly hard to refuse her. Especially when she was smiling at him in the way that she was. Surely one more couldn't hurt? The two of then grabbed a drink before Karin grabbed his hand and dragged him outside. Tōshirō gave her a questioning look, making her get a little flustered. "It was packed in there. Too hot and loud."

Tōshirō nodded slowly. It had taken him by surprise, dragging him out like that. He could remember when Karin had been very shy and nervous around him, it had lasted for a fair few weeks. And now she was dragging him around like she had known him for years. She had of course, but with them both having important responsibilities, they rarely got a chance to talk. If his head was working correctly (which admittedly he wasn't sure it was, with the alcohol and all) then he estimated the two of them had only really gotten together and talked properly a grand total of ten or eleven times in the past three years they had known each other. But she didn't seem to mind getting close to him.

"Where are we anyway?"
Tōshirō's head snapped up. "Huh?"
Karin's eyes glanced around the area she dragged him to. "I don't recognise this place."
"Oh." Tōshirō realised what she was talking about. "This the area behind my office, it links up to my house."
"...But...I thought I took you out the front?"
Tōshirō raised his eyebrow. "How much have you had to drink?"
Karin's eyebrows furrowed. "I don't know, I can't really remember. Maybe I should go home."
Concern flashed across Tōshirō's face. "I think you should, you don't want to get yourself in trouble."

Karin nodded and lifted herself up from the wall she had been leaning against. She started moving towards his office again, presumably to go through it to get to the front before Tōshirō stopped her. "What?"
"I'm not letting you go home in this state on your own."
Karin rolled her eyes. "I'll be fine."
Tōshirō watched as Karin stumbled over what appeared to air. "I'm sure. Where do you live?"
"In the second squad, being the Vice-Captain and all."

Tōshirō could've slapped himself. Looked like Karin wasn't the only one who was intoxicated. "You can't go all that way now, with the state you're in, it's ages away."
"It's not ages away, we can shunpo."
Tōshirō shook his head. "Something tells me if we start shunpoing you're gonna start throwing up."
"I'm not a lightweight!"

Tōshirō had to resist rolling his eyes. "When was the last time you ate?"
"I dunno, like seven or eight?"
"Which is five or six hours ago. And you can't remember how much you've drunk. This isn't about you being a lightweight, you've just drunk too much. Face it, shunpoing to your house isn't going to be a good idea."
Karin huffed before replying. "Well then what do you suggest?"

Tōshirō thought for a while before coming to what looked like the only solution. "I suppose you could sleep over at my house tonight."
Karin glared at him. "What?"
Tōshirō couldn't stop himself from rolling his eyes this time. "Relax. I actually mean sleep. Do you really think I would take advantage of you like that?"
"Oh. Well...no, but alcohol is playing hell with my intelligence."
Tōshirō nodded. "Cmon."

XxXxXxXxXxX

Karin groaned loudly as the light hitting her face wouldn't go away. She forced her eyes open to see whether she had left the curtains open last night. She hadn't, they were just light coloured curtains. She groaned again as she buried her head under the duvet. Her head was killing her. She opened her eyes again, not being able to fall back asleep with such a headache. Suddenly she shot up, making her wince in pain straight after. This wasn't her bed, or her room, or even her house. What the hell had happened last night?

Karin couldn't help but get more frightened the longer she was awake. She had decided to walk through the house, but none of it was familiar. She couldn't remember anything from last night. She had no idea where she was, why she was there and how she got there. It worried her to say the least. Karin walked to the last room in the house, the kitchen. Again nothing seemed familiar. Karin had no idea what she was supposed to do. There was no one in the house. She wasn't really in a state to go exploring to find her way back home. She started to make her way back out of the kitchen until she caught sight of her name. Karin turned to face the fridge which had an envelope with her name written in big letters. She opened it quickly and tried her hardest to read the letter, regardless of her headache.

XxXxXxXxXxX

Tōshirō jumped slightly as he heard the door to the right of him open. Usually it was the other that people came through. He relaxed when he saw Karin walk through, rather groggily. Tōshirō spoke quietly, knowing that she probably didn't feel well. "Hey."

Karin waved at him, almost childishly. "Why was I at your place? In your bed?"
"Didn't I say in the letter?"
"No."
"Oh...I meant to."
Karin mustered the best glare she could under the circumstances. "Well?"
"You got pretty drunk last night, to the point where you were struggling to walk. Because your house is miles away, I let you stay at my house."

"Ok...But that doesn't explain I was in your bed."
"I put you in my bed and I slept on the sofa downstairs."
Karin smiled slightly. "You should've put me on the sofa."
Toshiro shook his head. "You probably would've fallen off if I put you on the sofa, it's not exactly huge."
"Still..."
Tōshirō shrugged and continued to clean up the mess in his office.

"Thank you, for letting me stay and making sure I was ok."
Tōshirō offered her a small smile. "Don't worry about it."
A few moments of silence passed before Karin spoke again. "I didn't...do anything stupid last night did I?"
"What do you mean?"
"You know, I didn't do anything that I wouldn't have done if I was sober."
"Well you did drag me outside of my office out the back."

Karin's eyes widened slightly. "Oh crap I didn't do anything else to you after that did I?"
"No that was when I decided to take you to my house. Why, what would you have done?"
Karin shook her head furiously. "Nothing. Absolutely nothing."
"If you keep doing that you'll make your head worse."
Karin stopped and put one of her hands up to her temples. "Jeez you weren't kidding."
"Is this the first time you got drunk?"
"Well, I've been drunk before, but never to the point where I can't remember everything from the night before."
Tōshirō nodded. "I see."

The two stayed in silence for a couple of minutes, a little awkwardly, before Tōshirō's voice filled the quiet room. "Seriously, what else would you have done after you dragged me out there?"
Karin glared at him as her face turned bright red. "Nothing! It doesn't concern you anyway."
Tōshirō smiled at her flawed reasoning. "How does it not concern me? It directly involves me. You dragged me out there, in an area where we were alone and you were worried that you had done something else to me. What could you have done? Should I avoid you from now on whenever you're drunk?"

Karin continued to glare at him for as long as she could before breaking eye contact, looking down at the floor, embarrassed. She didn't know what was worse, the fact that he had figured out that she was interested in him or the fact that he was now teasing her with it. Tōshirō noticed how embarrassed she had gotten and started feeling bad. He sighed and walked over to her, gently holding her upper arms, making her look up. "Sorry, I didn't mean to make you upset." He carefully took her hair that was covering her face and tucked it behind her ear, making her go even redder. "I'm just...well happy."
"Huh?"
"I like you."

Karin eyebrows rose in surprise. "You do?"
Tōshirō smiled slightly. "Yeah. And I'm assuming, well hoping that you like me too?"
Karin grumbled under her breath. "Obviously."
"Sorry for teasing you."
Karin glared at him. "You should be. That was mean."
"Sorry." He spoke again, quietly, barely above a whisper. "It's just that you look so cute when you turn red like that."

Karin went red again and shoved him away. Tōshirō smirked as he saw the playfulness in her eyes, which ended up making her grin. "So you like me too huh?"
Tōshirō nodded. "Yeah, for a while now. I thought you had noticed."
Karin shook her head. "Nope. So er...What does this mean?"
Tōshirō looked at her. "What do you want it to mean? Do you want to be, well together, for lack of a better word?"
"Well, yeah."
"Good."
Karin smiled to herself, which Tōshirō couldn't help but notice.
"Karin you should go rest. And make sure you drink a lot of water, alcohol dehydrates you."
Karin nodded, smiling again when Tōshirō kissed her forehead."

Outside of the office, Rangiku grinned almost manically at the result of her little get-together. And to think that her Captain used to hate parties and alcohol.

I thought it would be nice to have a fun chapter, especially after the gap and the fact that the next chapter is a little sad, its title is 'Lost'. Thank you so much for all of the reviews, faves and alerts, they really mean a lot to me. I was also ridiculously happy to see such great responses to the last chapter as I really liked that chapter too. Thanks a lot you guys! I hope you liked this chapter and I hope you look forward to the next one. The one after that, is chapter fourteen, 'Found', which should be interesting. Sorry again for the long wait.